In a video response to Israeli campaign against military strike in Islamic Republic, a man claiming to be Iranian says his people have received all the messages on the internet; says 'we don’t seek war, we want peace'

Dudi Cohen|Published: 30.03.12 , 08:40

Everybody's talking about peace and love – Amid growing speculations on a military strike in
Iran, Israelis and Iranians continue to exchange messages of peace and love over the internet.

The love campaign,
which was initiated on Facebook by two Israelis, has yet to receive many responses from the other side, but on Thursday, an Iranian web surfer uploaded a short video on YouTube in which he thanked Israelis for their affection, saying: "We don't seek war, we seek peace."

The man, who identified himself as an Iranian, covered his face with a green handkerchief in a possible sign of identification with the Green Revolution that
swept many young people in the Islamic Republic.

In the video, the man did not say whether he was living inside the Islamic Republic or not, but noted that he was covering his face because he didn't want authorities to recognize him. "If you see my face, I cover it because I don’t want to be recognized by the government of Iran. Well, all of you know there is no freedom of speech in Iran," he said.

"Today I have a message for Israeli people. We did see all of your messages -- your videos on YouTube, your messages on Facebook; we have seen your websites where you told us, Iranians, that you love us – you don’t hate us at all and you care about us.

"Well, as an Iranian in response, first of all I have to tell you that if you are not seeing a great response (from) Iranians it's just because of politics. But I wanted to tell you from our heart -- We don’t seek war, we seek peace – only peace.

The man continued by addressing all Israelis: "Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and everybody inside Israel – I want to tell you all that we love you also, and let's continue this. (Let's) inform all (the) people inside our countries…and prohibit this dangerous war. I wish to see you all in peace and thank you for caring," he said, concluding with a peace sign.

Also on Thursday, the Israeli campaign organizers published website stats showing that some 33,000 Iranian web users visited the campaign page on Facebook over the past week. In addition, a total of 50,000 Facebook members have already 'liked' the page.

According to the stats, most visitors on the page (other than Israelis) live in the United States, Germany, Italy, Canada, France and Sweden – all countries with large Iranian expat communities who are mostly critical of the Ayatollah regime in Tehran.